FoCo Joe: "Wokin’ Banana Plaintains”
Entering FoCo this weekend, I once again had no idea what I was going to make for this week’s column. I knew that I wanted to find something adventurous, even bold, but I couldn’t think of anything. I workshopped the idea of making an ice-cream sandwich without using FoCo cookies —certainly an earnest concept, if an impractical one —but I decided I owed it to my readers to stay away from the cookies. That’s when one of my Dartmouth swimming & diving teammates, with whom I was eating dinner, started talking about bananas.
Here’s what I did:
Step 1: Select an unripe banana or two from a FoCo fruit stand, looking for bananas that have the brightest green coloring. Unripe bananas are critical for mimicking fried “ cooking plantains” because they do a better job of absorbing oil.
Step 2: Cut your banana(s) into a few pieces about an inch wide (at least). These pieces must be sufficiently thick because the outer edges of the bananas will shrink as they absorb the oil.
Step 3: With a spoon, gently smash the unripe banana pieces to give them a rounder cookie shape. This step is difficult to do with FoCo bananas —traditional cooking plantains are much more firm than unripe bananas and are usually squished by smacking the side of a heavy knife. I’ve seen this time and time again on the Food Network, though YouTube clips of this process are worth looking up to see what I’m referring to. In any case, use the flattest part of a regular spoon in FoCo to do the job. You will see it does not take much force to flatten the banana slices, but too much force can squish them significantly. (Note: If the slices fall apart in the process, they are probably still worth frying — they will just need to be flipped and removed very quickly.)
Step 4: Head over to the stir-fry station and get going! This is the hardest part, but can also be the most fun —I recommend seeing if you can get the temperature of your heat source turned down from level 60 to 50. Pour about two shots’ worth of oil into the wok, and then wait about 15 to 20 seconds for the oil to get really hot. You’ll know the oil is hot enough when it starts to sizzle or bubble.
Step 5: Place your banana slices into the oil. The oil should noticeably bubble and react to the banana’s arrival. Although the wok has little flat surface area, for the sake of time and convenience it is worth cooking all the banana slices at once rather than one at a time. Fry both sides of the banana slices for about 90 seconds each. (Note: a good way to tell when to flip the bananas is when the bottom edges begin to brown. See photo below.)
Step 6: When both sides of your banana slices are browned, remove them and place them onto a large FoCo plate. Try to remove any excess oil by gently rocking the plantain in your stirring spoon or by patting down your slices with a napkin.
Step 7: The hard work is done! Now all that’s left to do is add caramel sauce and a scoop of Vanilla ice cream. Ice cream is the way to go here — its creamy texture will hold up better with the crispy plantains than the soft serve. Vanilla is also the ideal flavor. The plantains have a bit of a smoky flavor that is best complemented with vanilla. Not chocolate, and also not chocolate chip cookie dough. Definitely vanilla.
Step 8: Eat and share with your impressed friends!
Based on the reviews I had for this dessert, I can confidently say that this plate is a textbook showstopper. In the words of my swim teammates, it is my “best ever” and “a Mona Lisa quality work of excellence that should be added to your resume as soon as possible.” High praise!